Medium West African-style netted gourd rattle (sekere)

This Pan-African Arts-crafted model features a mix of blue, red, and yellow glass and pony beads strung onto gold netting (with braided upper and lower collars to prevent slippage).

Dimensions: 11" h., 7" gourd diam.

Gourd rattles with an external network strung with bead, seed, shell, or bamboo strikers occur widely in West Africa, from the Congo/Angola region in the south to Mali and Senegal in the north. In the United States, by far the best-known rattle of this type is the Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀ (pron. SHEH-keh-reh, a dot under the S giving it an SH sound) of the Yoruba people of Nigeria and Benin.

The instrument also occurs in Cuba (under the name chekere) and in Brazil (there called xequerê), having been introduced by Yoruba captives transported to those countries during the years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. As in Africa, the instrument, played either singly or in groups of three of varying tonality, typically occurs in ceremonies in honor of certain orisa (oricha in Cuba, orixa in Brazil).

Essentially, the Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀ might be thought of as a combination rattle-drum. This is because, in addition to being shaken as a rattle, the player also can simultaneously tap the base and neck of the instrument to produce a drum-like sound. Another interesting technique involves using the palm to tap the mouth of the gourd; this results in a sound similar to that of the udu, a pot-like ceramic instrument of Nigeria's Igbo people.

Examples of playing techniques are provided in the following videos (): "Shekere Player/Music - Chief Yagbe Awolowo Onilu"; "John Santos Plays the Shekere"; "Okaidja & Shokoto - Shekere and Haitian dance"; "Women of the Calabash on CACE Int'l." The following videos feature sekeres crafted by Pan-African Arts in play: "Afro-Cuban Song Apprenticeship - Dany Illas & Hans Hernandez"; "Hans and Kenneth: Ṣẹ̀kẹ̀rẹ̀ and drum workout."